Remote Working in Times of the Coronavirus

The ongoing coronavirus outbreak has been affecting the way businesses and individuals work. Travel plans are suspended while conferences are being canceled or postponed. Companies have been asking their employees to work from home for longer periods. It’s unclear how the situation will continue to evolve.

Outside the main events being canceled, how has this situation been affecting the language industry?

A recent survey in China jointly launched by the Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU) and the Hebei Normal University for Nationalities (HBUN) among Chinese language service providers (LSPs) shows that 90 percent of the Chinese LSPs have by now to some degree resumed their operations.

Impact of coronavirus on operations of Chinese LSPs

Source: Survey on the impact of the coronavirus on the LSPs in China, conducted by the BLCU and HBUN

Interestingly, almost 54 percent of LSPs have fully resumed their operations via remote working. In what has been a difficult few weeks for a lot of countries, this is heartening news – people are getting on with their daily lives. This also confirms that those of us working in the language industry are perhaps more fortunate than others.

During our research, we found that the language services is the world’s most remote-worker-friendly industry, with 15 percent more likely to have remote work policies than other industries. In an industry where there is a wealth of tools allowing for online, remote work, more companies should not be afraid of allowing people to do just that while working from the safety and comfort of their homes.

How about you, how does your company approach remote working?

If you would like to learn more about remote work in the localization industry, visit the report here. Full report available to Nimdzi Partners.